Firearms generally have a trigger guard to prevent an accidental discharge or firing of a weapon by fending off inadvertent brushing by a hand or other implement. One such trigger guard is a stock ring-type trigger guard that keeps the trigger from being pulled inadvertently. The ring-type trigger guard wraps around the trigger in a halo-like arrangement. However, accidental discharges can still occur with traditional trigger guards. Additionally, it is generally known that the occurrence rate of an accidental discharge is higher for rifles than hand-guns. Even with a traditional trigger guard present, accidental discharge can still occur for a number of reasons such as a failure related to loading or unloading the weapon. Similarly, an accidental discharge can occur while drawing or holstering a weapon if the safety is not secure, such as for example, if a holster's thumb-break becomes tangled in the trigger and results in the discharge of a weapon.
Additionally, bolt-action firearms, typically used in hunting applications, have both a safety and a bolt latch for securing the bolt locked in a closed position. Thus, in a hunting application these two features allow the rifle to be carried in the field loaded and cocked without the high risk of accidental discharge.
It is also important to be able to store a firearm in a way that it is rendered safe and inoperable. This is to protect against children discharging the firearm, and unauthorized users such as home invaders from using a stored firearm to threaten or harm the owners. Existing trigger locks serve to cover the trigger guard against normal operation by a trigger finger, but these do not necessarily prevent other accidental discharges, nor do they prevent an unloaded firearm from being loaded.
Thus, it is desirable to have an additional protection mechanism to keep the trigger from being moved or pulled if the safety is in the off position. A need exists in the industry to provide a supplemental mechanism for a firearm, particularly for rifles, to reduce the rate of accidental discharge over and above the protection provided by a traditional trigger guard.